Over the last year or so, Kent RO has extended the brand into categories such as air purifiers, bed cleaners, vacuum cleaners, and cold pressed juicers.

Any successful brand extension, reckon marketing gurus, must rest on three pillars: fit, leverage and opportunity. Mahesh Gupta, chairman and managing director of India’s largest RO water purifier brand Kent RO, avers he factored in all three before taking the plunge.

Take, for instance, fit: if a water purifier is an integral part of kitchen, then so are vegetable cleaners, omelette makers, rice cookers and atta makers. Secondly, if Kent has been leveraging the ‘House of Purity’ tag for its range of water and air purifiers, the same plank can be expanded to appliances used for cooking healthy food. And lastly, after selling water purifiers for over 18 years, Gupta contends there’s an opportunity to move deeper into kitchen and homes.

“We plan to change the way people cook,” says Gupta. While conceding the market for some of his products such as cold-pressed juicers might be negligible at present, Gupta contends he is preparing for the future. Whenever they catch the consumer attention, Kent will be ready. “Purity will remain the core of brand extension,” he adds.

Over the last year or so, Kent RO has extended the brand into categories such as air purifiers, bed cleaners, vacuum cleaners, and cold pressed juicers. Recently, it forayed into the small kitchen appliance segment with its smart chef range of appliances such as vegetable cleaners, noodle and pasta maker, turbo blender, pizza and omelette maker, chilla maker, rice cooker and atta maker. “I am looking at introducing new segments and slowly the market will be created,” says Gupta.

The plan, reckon marketing experts, is smart and timely. “The transition from feature phone to smartphone happened almost overnight,” says Ashita Aggarwal, head of marketing at SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, giving an analogy. Kent’s brand extension could generate significant sales. While some categories like pizza maker might look niche, it has the potential to explode over the next few years. “The idea is to be ready as a right brand at the right time,” she says.

Another factor that might work in the favour of the brand is the huge equity it enjoys among consumers. “It will have a rub off on the new categories that Kent is entering,” she says, adding that the extension, happening after more than a decade, doesn’t appear to be done in in haste. “The foundation is ready for the building to be erected,” she avers.

Gupta admits that gunning for niches was indeed deliberate. “We didn’t want to get into the competitive space with me-too products,” he says. “Introducing a replica is not the chemistry of our brand. We are leaders and innovators,” he asserts, adding that none of the new products competes with any brand except rice cookers. The differentiation, he lets on, would be the quality. For instance, cold pressed juicers works on a technology that first crushes and then presses the fruit and vegetables for maximum yield. The juice extraction technique works on low rpm (revolutions per minute) so that it does not produce much heat and retains nutrients and fibres, he claims. Another product, turbo blender, too is loaded with cutting edge technology. It operates at a speed of 30,000 rpm for faster grinding and blending. “So, there is no need for overnight soaking,” he says.

Gupta has rolled out print, electronic and digital campaign to reach consumers. “We will be spending at least Rs 10 crores in marketing and branding of the new range,” he says, adding that having a long-running brand endorser in Hema Malini will make it easier for homemakers to connect. The brand plans to leverage its vast retail network to push the new range: 12,000 retail outlets, 3,000 distributors, 300 direct marketing executive and a sales force of around 1,500. Kent is also betting big on recently-rolled out consumer experience centres to let users get a hang of the products.

The challenge is generating enough demand. “It’s difficult to change the mindset and behaviour of customers. They want a mobile phone first; then a water purifier,” he concedes. Even after being in the industry for over 18 years, barely 2.5% of the population has a water purifier. “Creating awareness is one thing, getting consumers to buy is another,” he says. Gupta, however, sounds optimistic. What gives him confidence is the success he has tasted with water purifiers. “The consumer behaviour is changing. We will be able to create a market for our products,” he concludes, hoping the rest of his range go where the water purifiers have gone before: the homes and kitchens across India.

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